We will MAXIMIZE our Patrols!

There is nothing more critical to conserving the peace in the county than to do all that we can to blanket the county from one end to the other -- to the best of our ability -- with a uniformed sheriff’s presence. Even with the number of deputies we have now, there are things that can be done to get the most out of what we have.

 

     REDUCED PATROL HOURS A FAILURE

In an effort to increase the number of deputies available for calls, the sheriff’s office cut back on the regular duty hours of deputies to a 10 a.m. to 10 p.m standard patrol shift.  This, however, sent the wrong message to criminals who knew there would be no patrols outside those hours, and  left citizens scratching their heads and wondering if the sheriff’s office had merely given up on its responsibility to answer calls for service. Things got so bad this past summer that the Columbia 911 dispatch center sent out a disclaimer telling county residents that there were no deputies available after 10 p.m.  The fact is, on transitional days, that time often drops down to 8:00 p.m.,  after which no deputies are available without a call out.

 

                                       WHEN ONE PART OF THE COUNTY SUFFERS . . . .

Certain parts of the county often go without seeing a deputy on routine patrol for days on end.  When something bad goes down in certain parts of the county, it may be an hour or more before a deputy can get there -- more than that if there are no deputies on duty at the time the call comes in.

 

But we must remember that when one part of the county suffers, the whole county suffers. Crime rates affect us all.  People inside the cities are just as affected by the crime in the unincorporated parts of the county as those living in those areas.  Criminals who violate our friends and family in the country also violate in the city.  Often crime that occurs in the county is associated with criminal acts in the cities and vice versa.  But when a critical part of the equation fails to uphold its end of the bargain, the law enforcement county-wide breaks down and becomes horribly inefficient.

 

                                                                    THE ANSWER

The answer is to keep the crooks guessing.  Don’t allow them to  count on the fact that they will not see a deputy in their neck of the woods. Stagger your start and ending times based on call loads in a given part of the county.  Assign deputies to specific areas within the county and make them responsible for designing creative crime-solving solutions tailored to those areas. Cover longer periods of the day. Cover the hours when no deputy is on duty with deputies who are “on call” and required to answer the phone.  Rebuild the bridges of trust between the sheriff’s office and the other public safety agencies in the county, making it clear that the sheriff will uphold his responsibilities and help those agencies fulfill their responsibilities --  the result will be a renewed commitment to cover for each other as the needs arise.

 

These are things that CAN be done right now, but for one reason or another, are NOT being done. A JEFF DICKERSON administration would begin to implement these strategies immediately in order to rein in the bad guys as much as possible and to create a greater sense of peace conservation from one end of the county to the other.